Patrick touts progress on SouthCoast projects

Despite a difficult economy, Gov. Deval Patrick is proud of the state’s accomplishments during the past four years. Whether it’s improving the state’s transportation infrastructure or the ability to bring new and diverse business to the commonwealth, Patrick told about 100 people at a Fall River Area Cham...

Despite a difficult economy, Gov. Deval Patrick is proud of the state’s accomplishments during the past four years.

Whether it’s improving the state’s transportation infrastructure or the ability to bring new and diverse business to the commonwealth, Patrick told about 100 people at a Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon at White’s of Westport, Massachusetts is moving in the right direction.

To back his claim, he gave the crowd a laundry list of job creation initiatives, statistics and reports from groups such as bond agencies, media outlets and industry organizations, all of them saying that Massachusetts is in good shape.

Patrick said the state has been able to weather approximately $9 billion in budget gaps during his term. He said in April the state saw the largest single-month job gain in 17 years and business confidence has improved in 13 of the past 15 months.

“Slowly but surely the Massachusetts economy is coming around,” Patrick told the crowd.

He assured more is to come as he pointed out that the state’s population is beginning to grow again after years of decline and industries new to the state are making Massachusetts home.

“This is the kind of recovery we want to build in Massachusetts,” Patrick said.

The improvements, he noted, are not happening just in Boston. As he talked about transportation projects Patrick ran off a SouthCoast list that includes the exit 8½ interchange on Route 24, the Interstate 195 work underneath Government Center, construction of the Veterans Memorial Bridge and the planned painting of the Braga Bridge. He also reiterated his commitment to the South Coast Rail project, reminding the crowd that work would begin this summer on rail bridges in New Bedford.

“After decades of inaction, construction of the South Coast Rail project starts this summer,” Patrick proclaimed.

While proud of what’s been accomplished, Patrick, who faces a four-way race for in the governor’s office this year, acknowledged there is more to be done. He told the crowd the state needs to do more to address the needs of small businesses, saying those businesses can be the catalyst to adding more jobs. Among the assistance from the state, Patrick said, will be containing excessive health care hikes.

“I’ve lost my patience for endless excuses and circular reasoning from the health care industry for these increases,” Patrick said. “The point is enough is enough, we have to give small businesses breathing room.”

Of course Patrick couldn’t leave the White’s ballroom without talking about Fall River’s plans to sell 300 acres of land to the Mashpee Wampanoags to pave the way for a resort style destination casino.

Asked how long it could take for the city to see the benefit of job creation from the proposal, Patrick said there are still too many unanswered questions that need to be answered before any such timeline could be made.

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His message for Fall River is “to take a breath” and see how gaming legislation plays out on Beacon Hill.

He said the state will continue to look at the city and region for an array of potential projects.

“We don’t have one strategy for Fall River or the SouthCoast, we know how dumb that would be,” Patrick said. “We’re active in all those areas because a healthy economy depends on a lot of different enterprises. I know there’s a temptation to set up this as a choice between a casino and biopark, but that’s not how we’re thinking of it at the state level.”